


five times aomine didn't apologize (and one he did)

by andreaphobia



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Angst, Apologies, Choices, Five Times, M/M, Mistakes, Regret, Self-Loathing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 15:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/611504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andreaphobia/pseuds/andreaphobia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone makes mistakes—but some more than others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	five times aomine didn't apologize (and one he did)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lysapadin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lysapadin/gifts).



> Written for a prompt from Lys ap Adin. Originally posted on Tumblr.

_i. the one he saw for but a moment  
_

In his defense, he’d been training all day, it was dinnertime, and he was hungry. (Besides, Tetsu was waiting for him. A man didn’t keep Tetsu waiting for long, not if he valued his life.)

“Awww, not _again!_ ” Kise whined, as Daiki dunked on him for the dozenth time that evening. “One more round, Aominecchi! Just _one_ more!”

“Nah, I’m done,” Daiki said, scooping the ball up from where it’d rolled off and tossing it back to Kise.

“But _Aominecchiii_ —”

To this day he’s not sure why he said it. Maybe it was the particular grating note that Kise’s voice hit at the end of his name, or maybe it was the growling of his stomach. Maybe it was both or none of those things… but there was no point second-guessing himself now, years later, when it was nothing but a faint memory of regret in his mind.

“I said _no_ ,” he snapped. “It’s no fun since I always win, anyway.”

He glanced at Kise, and that was when he saw it— the widening of the eyes; the hurt, stunned look, as though Daiki had reeled back and slapped him. It was gone as soon as he’d registered it, though, gone like it’d never been there at all. Then Kise huffed and blustered and called him a meanie, which made it easy for him to wave Kise off, leaving the other alone in the gym. The moment had slipped through his fingers. He never brought it up again.

 

 

_ii. the one he regrets the most  
_

Daiki can say with some measure of confidence that after _that_ incident, things were never quite the same again. His outlook had already begun to change some time before it, of course, but it was really that one moment that cemented the way they would be with each other, from there on out.

Afterwards, they stopped walking home together, stopped having lunch together, stopped hanging out with each other on the roof during breaks. Tetsu didn’t meet his eyes when they were talking, but it didn’t matter, because they rarely spoke. It was lonely, but he expected that. Accepted it, even; after all, it seemed like the most natural consequence of him surpassing everyone, that the distance between him and everyone else would grow, that he’d begin to fall out of touch with ‘normal’ people.

So Daiki didn’t stop it. He let it happen; he watched, like a fucking idiot, as Tetsu walked away from him, just _watched_ , and only when it finally occurred to him that he’d lost everything that he’d ever held dear did Daiki realize that this wasn’t what he wanted… it wasn’t what he wanted at all. But by then, it was too late. That’s how the story goes.

 

 

_iii. the one that seemed inconsequential at the time  
_

It was his stomach’s fault, Daiki thought later. Easier to blame his stomach than some kind of critical personality defect. Because he wasn’t a bully. Not _really_. But when he saw the tears welling up in Ryou’s eyes even though he was clearly fighting the urge to cry, he—maybe just a little—felt like one.

So he toned it down for a week or two; ate some nikuman on the roof during breaks, instead of half of Ryou’s lunch. Not that it mattered, because the damage was done. ( _That_ , of course, was a familiar concept to him.)

The funniest thing was that Ryou made him a bentou to apologize for freaking out on him, as though _he’d_ done something wrong by getting upset. It cracked Daiki up… but he ate it anyway, because that’s the kind of person he was.

 

 

_iv. the one that reminded him of old mistakes  
_

If the look on Satsuki’s face after he’d said those words didn’t hammer the point home, the way she threw a clipboard at him afterwards kind of did. The thing that struck him hardest, though, was how, after all this time, he was still making the same stupid mistakes. Could he never stop? Was he doomed to be stuck in this rut forever? That was the big lie that they told people; that you could take words back. You could _never_ take words back. Once you’d said them to someone, they would remain there between you, forever. All one could do was make up for them, and it seemed that was his cross to bear. Forever scrambling to make up for the mistakes he couldn’t prevent himself from making.

They made up after that, of course, although not without Satsuki running off to cry on Tetsu’s shoulder first—he had a knack for cheering Satsuki up. (But they’d always known Tetsu was the better man, anyway.)

 

 

_v. the one he could do nothing about  
_

His knuckles ached the whole night from punching that damn locker. If only he’d punched that guy instead. If only. What did that guy know about Tetsu? What the fuck did he know about _anything_? The worst part was knowing that Tetsu did it for him, _because_ of him. Never giving up, not even when it was hopeless. That was his fault too, wasn’t it? Those were his words. He couldn’t take that back, either. There was no point being sorry, he thought, if you couldn’t make things better. In fact, there was no point in doing anything.

He stared at the ceiling until the sun rose—remembering, just remembering—and then skipped out on class the next day.

 

 

_(and:)_

_i. the one he’s only ever dreamed about  
_

“…’m sorry.”

Tetsu folds arms around him, draws him in. His fingers are cool on Daiki’s face. (It’s important to note that Daiki isn’t crying, not at all. Crying’s for the weak, and he—no matter what else he might be—is not weak.)

“…I’m the lowest of the low, huh?”

“Not sure about that,” Tetsu says, amiably. “Aomine-kun is rather tall.”

He laughs, though for some reason it comes out sounding like a sob. “…shut up.” And then, “—‘m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“…sorry.”

“Shh.”

“Sorry—”

“ _Daiki_.”

He stops. Tetsu tiptoes a little, bumps their mouths together, smiles. It makes Daiki’s chest clench something fierce.

“It’s all right now,” Tetsu says, quietly, holding on to his shoulders. "It's all right."

(The way he says it, Daiki can almost believe that it’s true.)

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are appreciated! ^_^


End file.
